Free Possessed (Book One of the Hollow City Coven Series): A Witch and Warlock Romance Novel by Hazel Hunter Page B

was the man I had slept with,” she said quietly. “I don’t know. It was too dark to see. All I know was that I needed to be sick. I made it to the bathroom, and somehow, I managed to calm myself down enough that I didn’t run out into the dark completely naked. I was shaky though. The man was still asleep, so I grabbed what I could and sneaked out. It took me two days to figure out that gloves could stop me from picking up those images, and those two days were hell. Los Angeles is a city with history, and a lot of it is nasty.”
    Shayne winced, but he never moved. He was as solid as the world next to her.
    “So your gift allows you to read the past?”
    Gillian nodded.
    “It does. Thank all the gods that ever were, it only affects my hands, especially my palms. Usually, it only ever works when something really powerful affected the object in question or when it’s really old. Things like pillows, sheets, soap, remote controls, new clothes, they usually don’t bother me much. There might be an echo of a sad worker in some foreign country, but they touch it so quickly that it’s drowned out.”
    “Then last night…”
    Against her will, Gillian shuddered.
    “That’s what happens when I touch people with my hands,” she said. “I can pick up images of who they are, what they’ve done, things like that. It’s only happened a handful of times, and each time, it was a major invasion of privacy that made me feel ill. It was terrible.”
    “You learned all about that Templar’s life?”
    Gillian nodded, pressing even closer to Shayne.
    “It was terrible. He was nothing but anger. If he hadn’t been a Templar, he would have been something equally as nasty, just directed at some other group. His entire life was nothing but anger from start to finish.”
    She turned to face Shayne.
    “Did you kill him?”
    “I did.”
    Gillian thought for a moment. There was the revulsion and pity she felt for the fact that a man had lost his life, but she had been in that man’s head, been next to his soul.
    “Good,” she whispered.
    They were silent together for a long period of time. The morning grew brighter. Vlasti appeared briefly to investigate, but apparently found them dull. Shayne’s familiar winged off into the woods after ascertaining they were safe.
    “Do I want to know what you know about me?”
    Shayne’s voice was thin and tense.
    “What?” Gillian blinked in surprise.
    Shayne wasn’t looking at her. There was a tension to his body that hadn’t been there before. He had the look of a man who was braced to hear the worst.
    “What do you know about me?” he asked. “I…have done things that I am not proud of. I think everyone has. But some of them are dark. Maybe they are as dark as what you saw in that Templar’s soul.”
    Gillian turned to face him fully.
    “What on earth are you talking about?” she exclaimed. “I’ve never touched you…with…”
    She trailed off as she realized that her hand was bare. She remembered the way the Templar had ripped the glove off. She jerked back from Shayne as if she had been burned.
    “I…my glove, I need it…”
    Shayne pointed, and she realized that the glove had been neatly placed on the ground next to where she had been sleeping. She pounced on it, sliding her hand back into it with a hiss of relief.
    “Are you all right?”
    She nodded shakily. “I am. I just haven’t gone bare handed around other people for years. I–” She stared intently at him. “Did you touch me?”
    Shayne winced.
    “You touched me ,” he said. “When you were unconscious, you reached for my hand. You held it very hard for a while, and then, after you calmed down a little, you let it go. I’m so sorry, Gillian. If I had known what your power was or how it would affect you, I would never…”
    She shook her head slowly. She realized she was still holding the hand that had been bared. She made herself let go of it.
    “No, there was nothing like that at all. I don’t